Drilling mud



Patented Oct. 13, 1953 DRILLING MUD Paul W. Fischer, Long Beach, and Raymond A. Rogers, Wilmington, Califi, assignors to Union Oil Company of California, Los Angeles, Calif., a corporation of California No Drawing. Application September 26, 1949, Serial No. 117,934

6 Claims. (Cl. 2528.5)

This invention relates to the treatment of drilling fluids such as are employed in the drilling of oil and gas wells.

In general a drilling fluid particularly that employed for rotary drilling operations, which is also termed a drilling mud or simply a mud, is a colloidal suspension of a suspending agent such as bentonite or other suitable clays in water to which other materials such as barium sulfate may be added in order to increase its apparent specific gravity. The physical characteristics of these clay suspensions are largely determined by the properties of the individual clay particles, most important of which are size, shape and surface characteristics.

Until recently it has been considered that the principal functions of a mud in drilling operations are three-fold: it should form a cake on the wall of the hole; it should retain in suspension the cuttings formed so that the latter may be removed from the hole along with the mud; and it should possess sufficient weight to overcome any pressure encountered during drilling. These functions are considered in more detail below.

One of the primary difiiculties encountered in the drilling of Wells is that due to the sloughing or caving into the hole of the formations penetrated. The use of a drilling mud is supposed to lessen the tendency for caving by mudding-off the formations, that is, forming a cake on the Walls of the hole. It is recognized, however, that drilling fluids prepared from natural clays vary widely in their ability to prevent sloughing of formations and that those fluids which form a thin gelatinous cake on the walls of the hole and have a minimum tendency to lose water to the surrounding formations are the most desirable.

In order for drilling to proceed smoothly, means must be provided for continuously removing the cuttings from the hole and to this end drilling mud is circulated through the hole. The mud must be of sufficiently low viscosity to allow it to be readily pumped and it should be thixotropic. Thixotropy is that property of colloidal suspens'ion which involves an increase in gel strength as a function of the time of quiescent standing. This property is valuable in that it prevents, to a large extent, the sedimentation of the cuttings in the hole during periods of suspended circulation. However, immediately after violent agitation, such as is induced by the circulation of the mud, cuttings will settle a short distance and this fact is utilized for their removal in a settling tank provided for the purpose and in which the degree of agitation is suddenly lowered to practically zero. Normally, a mud which has proper wall building characteristics and is pumpable will have adequate thixotropic properties.

Obviously, the total weight of a mud must be sufiiciently great to prevent blow-outs from any high pressure formations that may be encountered, but beyond this point, the need for greater weight is problematical. A rapid reduction in the hydrostatic head maintained on formations, caused by a reduction in the specific weight of the mud or by permitting the'level of the mud in the Well to fall while removing the drilling tools from the hole may cause dangerous caving. Therefore, mud is usually pumped into the well while removing the drill string in order to maintain a substantially constant hydrostatic head on the formations being drilled and the mud gravity is always kept as constant as practical In general, the practice has been to keep the weight of mud only sufiiciently high to prevent blowouts. It is common practice to increase the specific gravity of a mud by adding finely ground insoluble materials of high density, such as for example, barium sulfate, iron oxide, etc. Because of their insolubility, the usual weighting agents employed have little effect on the performance characteristics of a mud.

Of the various characteristics of a drilling mud, the most important is its tendency to lose water to the formation. It has been found that the structural strengths of most formations which are penetrated during drilling are sufiicient to prevent the walls of the hole from caving, but that many such formations are weakened from being saturated or even partially saturated with water. Frequently such action causes sloughing of the formation into the hole with a resultant seizing of the drill pipe or tools so that they cannot be removed and costly fishing jobs result. It is, therefore, of the greatest importance to prevent loss of water from the drilling mud to the formations drilled. The ideal drilling fluid should permit very little if any loss of water to the formation and should deposit only a relatively thin mud cake on the walls of the hole.

As has been mentioned hereinabove, the most important physical characteristic of a drilling mud is its ability to form a thin impervious cake on the walls of the hole thereby sealing formations against infiltration of water. The terms cake-forming and water-loss properties, sealing properties and, as will be brought out hereinbelow, filtration characteristics or filter rate are used synonymously throughout this specification to denote this characteristic.

A measure of the tendency for a mud to lose water to the formations being drilled and to form a thin impervious cake upon the wall of the hole can be obtained by means of a simple filtration test. In fact, the sealing properties of the mud 5 are almost-entirely dependent uponcthe charac: ter of themudi-'cake"-formed when theilatter -is pressed against a membrane or filter permeable to water and are very largely independent of them. character of the membrane or filter employed. As a consequence, the "filtration rate of a mudl 1 becomes of prime importance in determiningthe quality of the mud.

The procedure for determining filtitatiomratea.

is described in Recommended Practice on Stand.

ard Field Procedure for Testing Drilling Fluids, A.P.I. Code No. 29, Second Editiorr; published". July 1942, page 11, and consists in measuring'the total volume of filtrate water obtained duringia given time interval of pressure filtration. The 0 amount. of..fi1trateobtained. in .th .first five minutes of filtration can beIused..as-an.indicationwof the relative quality of various. muds, A more accurate. evaluation is obtained from thevol'ume of. filtrate collectedin.the...first fifteen. minutes. 25,.

of filtration. An .evenbett'er.'procedureis to determine .the. totalvolumeof filtrate in the first hour. o filtration, Numerous .correlations -be.-.. tween. such. testsaand actual ..drilling. experience. withthe same. muds have shown that. the muds. yielding. a total. filtrate of. lessthan. 3011111.. in the. first hours filtrationperiod are usually very satisfactory On. the. otherwhand, muds yielding a total. filtrate in. excess of. .ml. .under. similarcircumstances have beexrfound dangerous to use, particularly .when drilling. through formations. which arereadily softened-by. penetrationv of. wa-ter,.-.ascave-ins. are. liable to. occur... Under someacircumst'ances particularly. .when drilling surface formations ors formations at moderate depth, the. permissible-maximum filtration rate of the mud may. be: ashigh as about 55 ml.. of total filtrate in 'thefirsthour of. filtration. A. mud which yields .a. total.-.filtrate of. .30 .mL. in. the. first hours filtratiomperiod Will yield. about 7 ml..of filtrate in thefirst five minutesand about 15 ml. of filtrate. in the. first fifteen minutes of filtratiom Similarly a-mudwhich yieldsafiltrate of 45 ml.. -in.-the.first hour of filtration will giveapproximately .11 mlain the first fiveminutes and. about 22..ml. in.the-first-fifteen.minutes of filtration.- A. mud which issatisfactoryfor drilling. operations will. under. the. conditions of thistest deposit-a filter cakeof notover one-quarter inch, preferablyeone-eighthr inch,.-.-in thicknes and. of a soft plasticror gelatinoustexture whereas muds exhibiting unsatisfactory filter rates-tend to deposita thick, toughmud. cake.-. -Normally, as has already been mentioned hereinabove,. muds .possessing.-. acceptable. .filtering. characteristics form: g0od=.mudcakes and, therefore, inpractice only thefiltering rate is ordinarily observed.

From theforegoingit may be concluded that inpreparing or treating a drilling. mud in order to endow it with properties-which will tend to insure satisfactory performance in the field, it is desirable that the-treated mud-when tested, as above described, yield a total filtrate of not over 55-41111. in the first hour of filtration, and preferably-less than 30' ml. of filtrate; and that thede positedcake be preferably less than one-eighth inch-inthickness andof a soft gelatinous texture.

It hasalso been observed that if the water losses fromthe drilling fluid to" the formations being drilled contain a.- dissolvedsalt: or mix.-

ture of salts, such as for example sodium chloride and calcium chloride, in appreciable quantity, there is less tendecy for swelling of the formation to occur. In the production zone this is particularly important and is reflected in an increasederate ofsproduction from-ithe well;- This is particularly trueiof therpolyvalent metal inorganic salts. Accordingly, in many cases it is desirable to incorporate a salt, such as for example sodium chloride, in drilling mud to the extent-of to 5% or as much as 10% by weight of. the totaLmudor. even more. The polyvalent metals'alts.arecalso -effective in smaller amounts down to-.about -0ilz%-. However, the addition of such: quantitieszof: a salt usually have an adverse effect upon the Water loss characteristics of the mud. and it is necessary to control the performance characteristics of a salt-base mud by the additioncofztreating agents.

As has already been mentioned hereinabove, a mud in order .to be. .usable, must becapable: of

being, readily. and easily circulated by means of P p such as is ordinarily employed. for the...

purpose. in the field....From a. practical standpoint =.it has. been...found that within certain. limits. the more readily the mud can-be circulated, thefaster. will drilling proceed. With many muds it hasbeen observed. that if their Marsh. funnel .viscosities, as determined byth 500 ml..

:in.and,.500..ml out method,. is in excess of 55.

seconds they. may exhibit impaired circulation rates.

readily pumpable inactual practice.

Insofar asthedrilling operation and the sub sequent production; rate ar concerned-the mostimportant characteristic of-1a drilling mudis its, atlafiltering. rateandthe viscosity. of the mud needonly be such-that it is pumpable. Throughout this specification and the. claims, wherever the terms viscosity,- Marsh viscosity, apparent viscosityor'funnel viscosity are employed, they relate to..the viscosity. as determined. bymeans of the above test,. a description of which. can be found..in. Recommended Practice on. Standard.

Field. Procedure for Testing Drilling Fluids,

A. -.-l?.. I. Code. N0.-29,. Second Edition, published July. 1942,..page v6, except that.500. ml.- of mud is measured-into the. funnel; and the time determined for'the 500ml. to run out..

It is therefore, one of the objects of this invention. to provide. fora treatment-of a drilling mud. which. will .cause the. latter to have a" filtrationrate of less than approximately 45 ml. and. at

most-not more than- .55. ml. inthe. first-hour of filtration, said treated. mud. havinga viscosity sufficiently low sothat it is pumpable.

When the viscosity of the-mudis sufiiciently low to permit it to berreadily circulated=andthe filtration-. rate, is within-the limits described herein above, the mud will ordinarily possess sufiicient thixotropic properties for all practical purposes.

It is another. object of this invention to provide for a treatment of a drilling mud containing an added salt resulting from. the. reaction of an alkali metal or analkaline earth metal with a strong mineral acid, such as for example sodiumchloride; potassium sulfate and calcium nitrate, said treatment causing the salt-base mudto have a filtration rate of less than approximately 45ml. andat most not more than ml. in the first-hourof filtration, said treated mud. being pumpable.-.

On theother hand. it has now been obe served that certainmaterials when added-to controlwater .lossmay resultrinmudshavingvis- ;cosities in excess of 55 seconds but which. areterial.

v The term performance characteristics is herein used to include wall building, water-loss and thioxotropic properties and viscosity but does not refer to the specific gravity of the mud.

In the usual field operations, it is often necessary to form a cement plug in the hole and to subsequently drill through this plug, thereby contaminating the mud with cement. Mud which has been contaminated with cement is termed cement-cut mud. It has been observed that such muds usually possesss poor performance characteristics in accordance with the quality definitions given hereinabove and that the greater the contamination the poorer the quality. Cement-cut muds often become so viscous in character that it is difiicult, and often impossible, to circulate the contaminated ma- This increase in apparent viscosity may impart gas cutting tendencies to the muds, that is, prevent the escape of gas from the mud, and tend to prevent the proper release of cuttings therefrom. Further, as will be discussed more fully later, such muds form thick, pervious cakes upon the wall of the hole which permit the ready penetration of water into the formation.

Clays, which consist predominately of hydrated silicates of alumina, when suspended in water possess an appreciable electric charge,

such charge in general being of a negative character. On the other hand, cement as is well known comprises a complex mixture of compounds of calcium, magnesium, iron, aluminiun and silicon. Although it has not been established beyond question and it is not desired to be bound by the theory, it is believed that the poor performance characteristics imparted by the presence of cement to an otherwise satisfactory drilling mud is due in part to the coagulation or flocculation of the negatively charged clay particles by the polyvalent positively charged metallic ions leached from the contaminating cement. Normally by far the largest proportion of the positive ions leached from cement are calcium ions. Muds may also become similarly contaminated during drilling operations by coming in contact with penetrated formations which contain materials, such as gypsum, from which polyvalent metallic ions may be leached by the aqueous phase of the drilling fluid.

Furthermore, depending upon the particular source, even the virgin clays employed for preparing drilling muds may contain materials capable of yielding polyvalent metallic ions when the clay is dispersed in water.

In any event, by whatever means the contamination may take place, it appears that the presence of polyvalent metallic ions either in solution in the aqueous phase and/or in combination with the negatively charged clay particles, is highly undesirable in that such a condition adversely affects the performance characteristics of the mud.

In the past when drilling muds have become contaminated or, in any event, when their apparent viscosities have become undesirably high, it has frequently been the practice to remove the mud from the hole and to dispose of it as useless material. Such practice involved a considerable disposal problem and, furthermore, it entailed considerable expense for the purchase of new mud. It has been the practice in some fields to lower the viscosity of cement-cut muds by the addition of water. In the past this has been highly undesirable inasmuch as such muds normally exhibited excessively high filter rates.

Muds reclaimed by means of chemical treatment, unless properly controlled, will not be of high quality nor will they alleviate the difiiculties encountered from the caving of formations. The reason for this is that a treatment which merely controls the viscosity of the mud is insufiicient unless attention has also been given to the cake-forming and water-loss properties of the mud and their importance.

It has now been found that drilling muds can be treated with certain reagents which will control both the viscosity and the filtration rate of the mud and that it is possible to add the reagents to the mud either after the contamination has taken place or, in those cases where it is known or expected that the mud is going to be contaminated by undesirable materials, such as for example, when it is anticipated that a cement plug will be drilled through and that the mud will then become contaminated with cement, the reagents can be added to the mud prior to said contamination. This latter type of treatment immunizes the mud against any substantial deterioration in its performance characteristics upon subsequent admixing with the contaminating material, and in some cases it has been found that such contamination after the addition of the reagents which have now been discovered even improves the performance characteristics of the mud. Furthermore, these reagents are so effective in controlling water loss that the viscosity if desired can be controlled merely by the addition of water to the mud either before or after contamination with the cement or similar materials. Illustrative of this point it has been observed that when mud becomes contaminated with cement its viscosity and filtration rate becomes undesirably high, but that these factors can be reduced to desirable values by the addition to the contaminated mud of a mixture of treating agents as described below. On the other hand, by adding this mixture to the mud prior to contamination with cement, the performance characteristics of the mud are improved, and upon the subsequent addition of cement the performance characteristics are still acceptable and in many cases may remain substantially unchanged or may even be improved.

It is another object of this invention to provide for a treatment of mud which will simultaneously control cake-forming and water loss properties, the viscosity and the thixotropic properties of the mud and which will not markedly alter the specific gravity of the mud.

It is an additional object of this invention to provide for a combination treatment of muds comprising the addition of one or more materials which will control the viscosity of the mud without acceptably altering its cake-forming properties and a second material or combination of materials which will control the cake-forming properties of the mud without acceptably controlling its viscosity It is also an object of this invention to provide for the pretreatment of mud in order to render it immune to the effects of subsequent contamination with cement or similar materials thereby providing for retaining the mud at all times in excellent condition in terms of the desirable properties enumerated hereinabove.

It has been discovered that by a suitable choice of treatment, not only can the viscosity of a mud, and particularly of a contaminated mud, be

7 ont-rolied;fbut :the cakeeforming sand waters-loss properties. of :the mud-,asnneasured by. the filtraionrrate. can alsosimultaneouslyberegulated ndmaintained rate high quality. It'has further'been determined z-that.;controllir1g the viscosit-y framudrand especially-pf a cement-mud, does znot :necessarily control the zfiltration rate :of the;mud.

FItIiS desirable practicing this invention to improve the performance characteristics of amud not; to. employ .an amount :of treating :agent or scrltsiin excess of i-the aninimum amount neces- Sary to. obtain ithedesired performance characteristics. 1 Ifthe quantity of .reagentexceeds'this amount :any. great :excess the .mud mayzbe-deleteriously afiected. -l l.'ormally the reagentssare {added in relatively small aproportions inithe aorder :of about 10.01% to2.-0% .by weight based upontheweight of drilling fiuidtreated, aithough under-some circumstances gas 2much 1 as 5% by. aveight' or even by :weight 'of-some of'therreagentsimay be used. :Byithe application ofthe -:a-bove described :tests it r'may :readily be determined what the :necessary amount of any given reagentlor reagents is for. any mud.

Before-considering the. types of reagents comprising the subject matter :of this invention, it should 'first ibe emphasized that, as might be expected,:natur-ally occurring clays and the muds prepared :fromzthem vary :considerably in character. .For example, they difier in ultimate chemical composition, .inlamounts and types of colloidal material, and .in amounts and types of impurities. Furthermore, the common contaminants which may become included in the mud during its use in drilling operations, namely, calcium hydroxide leached from cement, and gypsum,:diffier -type, one being a fairly strong base and the other a neutral salt. -As a consequence and in view-of-the complex character'of colloidaldispersions, it isonly logical to expect that in general'the performance characteristics of muds prepared from clays of different origins or even of :the same mud contaminated-with different materials, will'not necessarilybe affected in ex- A actly the same manner by the addition of any given treating agent. In spite of these variations it has-been found that the treating agents disclosed in the specification when added in proper amount will control the performancecharacteristics of various muds within acceptable limits.

The methods employed for making performance tests have been outlinedin detail above. In determining the effect of a treating agent or agents on a mud, the procedureemployed in the laboratory has been to add the desired amount of treating agent or agents to the mud followed by a thorough agitation of the mixture for one hour prior to the conducting of the performance tests; It will be observed that such a procedure completely eliminates any necessity for making a chemical analysis of the mud and, ass. consequence, it has been found to be the most practicalmethodwhich .can be employed in the field.

Ithas been discovered that the performance characteristics of a mud and particularly its water loss properties can be controlled by the ad dition to the-mud of a treating agent selected from the-group including quebracho and waterdispersible gums along wth a second treating agent selected from the group comprising the alkali metal and ammonium salts of higher molecular weight carboxylic acids and oil soluble sulfonicacldsieither singlyzorv inradmixture :with one another.

By the term alkali metal it. is :meant ito simclude lithium; sodium andpotassium;

By thewter-m i ammonium hydroxide is .meant the .hydroxide of thescompound known chemi- 021113 238 ammonia, :and :by the term amine is meant the warious amines and substituted amines such as :forexample dipropyl amine and triethanolamine.

The term:higher molecular-weight :corboxylic acids is meant :to include those :organic :com-. pounds of the fatty acid type having more 'fthan about lOuGfiIbOIl atomsper molecule suchas for example, ,oleic acid, ;.palmitic :acid, ,linoleic sacid; etc. .Itis also "meant toinclude those .other narboxylic acidshaving more than about; 102 10811? bonzatomsandzclosely related :to the fatty acids such as, for-example, :thecnaphthenic acidsaand the :rosin acids such as abietic acid.

The sulfonic acids of relatively high molecuelar weight employed to prepare the oil-soluble alkali :metal :and ammonium-salts may be those synthetically produced or those-obtainedfiromthe treatment of petroleum =fractions.. The latter are formed when lubricating oil fractions-.or similar petroleum fractions are treated with concentratedor'fnming sulfuric acid.- The -'so-. calledfmahogany acidsdissolve:inthe :oil phase, whereas the 'so-called green acids are water-soluble organicacids which rpassninto the sludge. After separation of the sludge "theifmahogany acidswhich are preferred may :be :recovered in the form of sodium salts 'by treat? ment of the acid-treated oil with'sodium ihydroxi..e to produce thesodium sulfonates which are then subsequently removed from the oil-solution by extraction with alcohol. The :other alkali metal salts and the ammoniumrsalts may be obtained from the above sodium .salts'by well known processes of metathesis. An "example-of a commercially available oil-soluble alkali :metalsalt of a higher molecular weight sulfonic acidiswa :concentrate in lubricating .oil, comprising about 60% sodium sulfonates -and-40% 'Ilubricating oil.

-'Desirably, but not necessarily, the treating agent selected from the group comprising :the alkali :metal and ammonium salts-of higher molecular weight carboxylic acids and oil-soluble sulfonic acids, may be dispersed in a petroleum or other hydrocarbon 'oil such as spray oil, a transformer oil extract produced by Edeleanu extraction of 'a suitable petroleum distillate with sulfur dioxide, a light lubricating oil or even a heavy lubricating oil, prior to introduction into the drilling fluid. 'Oilsof intermediate degreeof volatility, such as spray oil, kerosene or gas oil, or selective solvent extracts from these, have an additional beneficial effect of reducing the foaming tendency of the mud. The amount used is preferably between about 0A and about 7% by weight of the finished mud although larger amounts up to about 25% may be used in many muds to advantage.

It has further been discovered that the alkali metal and ammonium acid and neutral salts of the various acids of phosphorus such as ortho phosphoric acid, pyrophosphoric acid, hexametaphosphoric acid, etc., when added to drilling fluids in conjunction with a treating agent selected from each-of the classes of compounds disclosed hereinabove or only from the first named'class of compounds disclosed 'hereinabove.

, particularly when the drilling fluid is ,contami:

9 nated with cement or similar materials yielding polyvalent metal ions, results in performance characteristics which are better than can be obtained by the use of these materials alone.

One factor which has not been previously mentioned concerning the chemical treatment of muds is based on the fact that in actual commercial use muds may be exposed to temperatures of as high as 150 F. to 250 F., the temperature dependin principally upon the location and the depth at which the drilling is being conducted. It has been observed that many muds which have been chemically treated to improve their performance characteristics tend to deteriorate with respect to these characteristics upon prolonged exposure to temperatures in the neighborhood of 200 F. to 250 F., or even lower as is the case in drilling operations. This is apparently due to the fact that the chemicals added may be hydrolyzed or otherwise affected in such a manner as to alter their original effect upon the performance characteristics of the mud. It might be thought, therefore, that the use of chemicals reacting in this Way would be a bar to their practical application in the treatment of muds, and in those cases wherethe degradation with rise in temperature is rapid, such as in the case of sodium hexametaphosphate, their use may be inadvisable. However, it has been found that many chemicals, which apparently only slowly lose their effectiveness upon exposure to heat, may be utilized. In such cases it is preferable to add the chemical to the mud each day, thereby maintaining a low filtration rate and a low viscosity. The addition of three times as much chemical as is required to maintain the desired performance characteristics over a period of one day will not maintain the performance characteristics over a period of three days. Of course, it is evident that wherever it is feasible, it is preferable to use chemicals whose effect upon the performance characteristics of a mud are not altered by prolonged exposure to elevated temperatures such as may be encountered in the particular zone being drilled, and if such chemical will give the desired performance characteristics according to the tests herein disclosed, such a chemical is the most desirable. In some cases, it has been observedthat a certain order of addition will give better performance characteristics than the reverse order of addition. In the examples given below, therefore, unless otherwise noted, it will be considered that the chemicals are added in the order in which they are listed, since they give, when added in such order, the most desirable results.

It has further been discovered that the performance characteristics of a salt base mud, and particularly its water loss properties can be controlled by the addition to the mud of a treating agent selected from the group consisting of quebracho and water-dispersible gums, preferably in conjunction with the second treating agents above, i. e., the salts of oil soluble carboxylic and sulfonic acids.

By the term water-dispersible gum it is meant to include, for example, such products as gum karaya, gum sandarac, gum acacia, gum tragacanth, gum arabic, etc., all of which are natural gums, i. e. gums which occur as such in nature.

In the practice of this invention in the field, the treating agents may conveniently be added to the circulating mud stream at a point adjacent to the mud pump suction inlet in the mud sump. Thorough admixture of the thus introduced reagents may be assured by rapid recirculation of the mud from the mud sump through a spare slush pump. Durin treatment, mud samples may be taken from the circulating mud stream at frequent intervals and tested in order to determine when the desired degree of treatment has been effected.

The following examples are presented in the nature of illustrations of the practical value of the processes of the invention and are not to be construed as limiting the invention in any sense.

Example I A Santa Maria Valley clay was mixed with water to give a fluid weighing 78.5 pounds per cubic foot. To a given volume of this fluid was added an equal volume of water in which had been dispersed various treating agents and the viscosity and filtration rate were determined on each sample by the procedures already described. The data from these several experiments are given in the following tabulation.

The sodium sulfonate referred to is a commercially available concentrate comprising about 60% by weight of the sodium salts of mahogany or oil soluble sulfonic acids prepared by sulfuric acid treatment of lubricating oil, and about 40% of lubricating oil.

Tall oil is an article of commerce obtained as a byproduct from the Swedish process for cellulose pulp making. Sweet liquor from the process separates into two layers, the upper of which is the crude tall oil, which may be purified by distillation to yield a product containing both fatty acids and rosin-type acids.

Example [I Treating agent added, percent 2 2 3: Filtration rate by weight of the final drilling 500/5003 l fluid secs. 1st 5 min. 1st 15 min.

a. No added treating agent 23. 5 25 46 b. 0.34% gum karaya 37 18 35 c. 0.34% gum karaya;

sodium sulfonate. 32 5. 0 9. 5 d. 1.0% sodium sulfonate 25 9. 5 l8 Example III The same fluid was used as for the experiments described in Example I. To a given volume of this fluid was added an equal volume of water in which had been dispersed various treating agents, and subsequently the drilling fluid was admixed with 0.7 by weight of hydrated cement. The viscosities and filtration rates of these sam- 11 ples were determined andare. recorded in the following tabulation:

Marsh Filtration rate, ml. viscosity secs. 1st 5. mm.

Treating agent added, percent lygeight of the final drilling 1st min.

. N 0 added treating agent. 22 2.0% sodium sulfonate 22 2.0% sodium sulionate; 0.5%

quebracho. 2.0% sodium sulionate; 0.1%

sandarac 2.0% sodium sulfonate; 0.1%

gum karaya 2.0% sodium tall oil soap;

0.1% gum acacia. 0.1% gum acacia 30 0.5% quebracho Example IV Marsh Filtration rate, .1111. viscosity 001. 09,

'lreatingagent added, percent gmgg e tq neldn lin 1st 5 min. 1st 15 min.

. No added treating agents. 1.0% sodium sulfonate 1.0% sodium sulionate; 0.1%

gum acacia 0.5% sodium pyrophosphate.- 1.0% sodium sulfonat'e;-0 .1% gum acacia; 0.5% sodium pyrophosphate The drilling fluidndcsqribedrin. Exam le. Ia mnrisesa i t re0i.-- ai t?'Mar a Valley clay and water. Althoughflpossessingan acceptable s si 3 25 92 121! 54 131 1 r i it w ul v normal y. no e sed ntdri in ..-Q rad he.a di ena i sm h 5 by Weight of sodium pyrophosphate,(awidelyused. treating agent) to the drilling mud, as indicated in EX- ample If, improved the. filtration rate to some ext n t t as. i l und irabl high- The dd t n ;:br' ehtr ie iu u fon gave a drilling fluid having acceptable performance characteristigi Example 1b) However, even better performancecharacteristics were obtained by in a i e pn o s dium rl ai with m a d um. amia m acacia as shown in- Examples 10, Id, and Ie, respectively.

Examples 11b, 11c and Ildshow clearly how the combination of sulfonate and. karaya gives much better results. than either one alone.

Example 111a. shows theeitectoi cement contamination on the drilling fluid of Example Ia. ExampleIIIb demonstrates that the-addition of sodium sulfonate to, the drilling fluid, followed by cement contamination results in amaterial which is. still usable .for drilling operations. EX- amples 1110, 111d, 111e, and IIIfdemonstrate that the use of quebracho, gum sandarac, gum karaya, and gum acacia respectively, in conjunction with sodium sulfonate are all superior to sodium sulfonate alone in overcoming the effects of contamination with cement; .andIiIg. and 11111. show that acacia. or quebrachlo alone are..relatively ineflective in reducingwater loss.

112 hedr lin fl idz es ibed; Examp e-5 36c, compri i a mixture o ntqnit lay-and .water, possessed good; performance characteristics n wou d be: s b e with ttr et i. the drilling of a; welLprovided o f;.course,-.-that it. did not become contaminated. with materials such as cement, -g ypsum, etc. However, ashas already been indicated; thelower-thefi tra .3

rate the moredesi-rable the mud for drilling-operations. Egample IVb shows that; the: use of sodium sulfonate alone gives some improvement infiltration rate. E-xamhle I;Vd shows-that 0.5%

of sodium py o h sp ate improv s t viscosity but has, little or no effect-onv the filb ia-tiimi fiitegroup consisting of the alkali metal, ammonium and amine salts of oil-solublemineral oil sulfonic acids, and a water dispersible natural: gum.

2. A drilling fluid comprising water, a finely divided. suspended solid: 0.01% to 10% ofoilsoluble mineral oil sodium sulfonateand 0.01%

to 10% of gum acacia.

3. A drilling fluid according to claim 2 containingabout 0.1% of gum acacia, about 0.6% of sodium sulfonate andabout 05% of sodium pyrophosphate.

4. A drilling fluid accordingto claim 1 in which the gum is gum sandarac.

5. A drilling fluid according to claim 1' in which the gum isgum karaya.

6. A drilling fluid according to claim 1 in which thesoapis a sodium soap and the gum is gum karaya.

-- U RAYMQND A. ROGERS.

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The Condensed Chemical Dictionary,3rd'ed;, pg, 561, publ. 1942. by. Reinhold-Pub. Corp, New Y rk. 

1. A DRILLING FLUID COMPRISING WATER, A FINELY DIVIDED SOLID SUSPENDED THEREIN, A SOAP OF THE GROUP CONSISTING OF THE ALKALI METAL, AMMONIUM AND AMINE SALTS OF OIL-SOLUBLE MINERAL OIL SULFONIC ACIDS, AND A WATER DISPERSIBLE NATURAL GUM. 